Elevated Mortality Among People Experiencing Homelessness With COVID-19

Kathryn M Leifheit; Lelia H Chaisson; Jesus A Medina; Rafik N Wahbi; Chelsea L Shover

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofab301

Elevated Mortality Among People Experiencing Homelessness With COVID-19

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2021 Jun 4;8(7):ofab301. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofab301. eCollection 2021 Jul.

Authors

Kathryn M Leifheit¹, Lelia H Chaisson², Jesus A Medina^{1

3}, Rafik N Wahbi⁴, Chelsea L Shover⁵

Affiliations

¹ Department of Health Policy & Management, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, USA.
² Division of Infectious Diseases, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
³ UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁴ Department of Community Health Sciences, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health, Los Angeles, California, USA.
⁵ Division of General Internal Medicine and Health Services Research, Department of Medicine, UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine, Los Angeles, California, USA.

Abstract

We reviewed publicly available data from major US health jurisdictions to compare severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 case fatality rates in people experiencing homelessness with the general population. The case fatality rate among people experiencing homelessness was 1.3 times (95% CI, 1.1-1.5) that of the general population, suggesting that people experiencing homelessness should be prioritized for vaccination.

Keywords: COVID-19; case fatality rate; homelessness; public health surveillance.

Grants and funding

T32 HS000046/HS/AHRQ HHS/United States